“If you don’t go to the gym in March, you will cry in April” is a modern Chinese expression adapted from a famous compilation of Han dynasty poetry. So it has come to be that Nanjing’s fitness centres are packed to the gunnels every evening. Serving as an inspiration for many, with his solid sixpack and an abundance of striated muscles, 28-year-old Li Hengbi spends 340 days a year in the gym pumping irons.
Li looks no different from any other fitness fanatics but one might notice that every time he lifts a heavy dumbbell he has to use his right hand to help his left due to an accident 7 years ago when his skull was shuttered, leaving him with Post-Traumatic Brain Injury Syndrome.
Working for a foreign trade company eight hours a day like the rest of us, Li’s daily routine, however, starts at 5.30 am when he wakes up and goes jogging. By 7 am he is on his bike along Hexi riverside and then straight to work. He climbs 16 floors to his office everyday and eats a corn stick for breakfast. During the lunch break he goes to the gym and will have two boiled eggs, one apple and two boiled (but unsalted) chicken breasts for lunch. At 6 pm he cycles home and hits the gym again for another 2 hours of weight training. Finally, he eats some boiled vegetables before going to bed at 9.30 pm.
“I always live each day like a fitness athlete. Train hard. Eat well”, he says of his secret of how to keep those abs.
Seeing him today, it is a great surprise to learn that 7 years ago Li was given a virtual death sentence by doctors. In 2009 when Li was still a fourth year student in University, he drank too much at a classmate’s birthday party and fell hard on his head down the stairs. He recalls, “My ear was bleeding. But I didn’t think it was serious”. The next day Li felt sick and when his friends took him to hospital, the right side of his skull was found to be completely shattered. The doctor said had he come in any later he would have been dead already.
Li was in a coma for a month after surgeons put in 27 nails and a titanium sheet to replace his broken skull; “When I woke up I was desperate for a long time but then I decided I was only 21 and I couldn’t just let myself go on like this”.
Managing to rise from the hospital bed 2 months later, after 4 months he started to use the treadmill at the hospital, which surprised the doctor. “I played all kinds of sports since I was a boy. I think it definitely helped me in recovering”, Li said. But he suffered from severe after-affects from the accident such as being unable to walk normally while only two fingers function on his left hand.
“I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself”, Li said in a light tone. He forced himself to go the gym every day and has kept a healthy lifestyle ever since; “I love cycling. If I could go anywhere by bike, I wouldn’t go by bus”. Li said cycling for 20 km around the lake is a piece of cake for him and one of his favourite things to do.
This year Li Hengbin received credentials as a fitness coach issued by the General Admission of Sports, a very rare award. He is also expecting his Masters degree in fitness training from the Nanjing Sports Institute in June.
“My dream is to open my own gym and train people professionally”, Li’s eyes sparkled. He then raised his left hand with his only functioning index finger and middle finger stretched. “Isn’t this the ‘Victory’ sign? I think it is God telling me that there is no reason not to stay strong and carry on”, Li said with a smile, wearing his self-designed sports t-shirt on which is written the slogan “IT’S MY LIFE”.
If Li can do it, what is your excuse for not going to the gym? April is calling.
